Hoyts

I recently shot the "Hoyts 100 years" campaign through an agency in Melbourne called Paper Stone Scissors. The idea behind the campaign was for Hoyts to give away free tickets on your birthday and we needed to find people who shared a resemblance to famous stars.

The art director, Jake Smallman had several ideas and the client was to sign off on four final images. My favourite concept was the Robert Deniro "Taxi driver" theme, but unfortunately the client didn't approve it.

Traveling home on the bus one night I looked up from my book into a cafe in Bondi and noticed someone looking extremely close to Robert Deniro in that movie, so I took it as a sign that I should shoot the "Taxi Driver" concept anyway. 2 weeks later I was on location of the Beatdisc photoshoot, and in one of the 19 abandoned rooms was an actual taxi sign that sits on the roof of a car......another sign that the shoot needed to happen :)

Dinner for two with Manu

At 13, Manu was training to be a performing circus clown and planed to join the Carnie life. However at 15, inspired by his father's restaurant he decided to turn direct his passion to food. Now he has 3 chefs hats under his belt, a slew of celebrity TV appearances and a signature restaurant. When I met Manu and discovered he had been trained as a clown I was fascinated. Originally I thought that the two occupations were completely different, but delving deeper into what makes up the elements of each profession, many correlations became apparent. Cooking in essence is performing too! Whether Manu is cooking for two hundred people on a Saturday night in a packed restaurant, or for his family on a Sunday night, or developing instant recipes for the thousands of TV viewers at home, he is always entertaining. In my picture I wanted to demonstrate the similarities of performance within both occupations by combining the two, and focusing on the performance side of each. While trying to illustrate Manu's larger than life personality in a single frame

John Terilli - "Mr Universe"

My wife Liliya recently filmed a feature film with John Terilli. For those of you that aren't in the know, John Terilli is one of Australia's most successful bodybuilders. In 1994 Terilli was the first Australian to win the Mr Universe competition, which is an amazing feat and now the "Mr Universe" tagline will stick to him forever.

Since then Terilli has been running the Broadway gym, and his acting career is taking off with his second feature film about to commence production.

The brief on this job was to shoot a front cover for a print calendar on star signs that will be featuring some of my other images. John who is a star and about to be a bigger star is watering his star Garden.

All of the surrounding houses had curious onlookers peeking from behind their curtains, in what they discovered was not your typical Saturday morning sight.

Thanks to the following people:

John Terilli, Kerryl Bullen (Stylist), Lisey Ruth Curtis (Hair & Make-up), Julian May (Assistant & Behind the scenes shooter) & to Bruce Allan who helped me find the location

Final Image:



Behind the scenes video footage:

Link to Terilli's website:
http://www.johnterilli.com/

Beatdisc Records

When art director Jono Palasty came to me with an open brief for Beatdisc Records, I jumped at the chance to shoot it.

Beatdisc Records is an alternative record store in Parramatta, and the concept Jono P came up with was "ALL WE KNOW IS MUSIC". This involved photographing talent in a dodgy location as if they were squatters, and then shooting instruments for their heads.

My brother Nick helped us find the perfect location that required no styling, which sounds simple but it was shot gorilla style. We had to hike all the gear up a rickety old ladder and over a balcony, whilst not slipping on mountains of pigeon pooh and making sure no-one saw us entering or leaving the building.

The ads will possibly run on street posters and street press like "Drum" magazine.

Thanks to Mark Nara and Franky for being Talent, and Nick for finding the location :)

Russia

I think I must have lived as a Russian in a previous life..... I wash down shots of Vodka with gherkins, love Karaoke, dried fish and caviar, married a Russian girl, and am fascinated by the country. I noticed this when I was cheering on Russia against America in the latest Olympic Games.

Last Saturday night I found myself in one of Sydney's enjoyable Russian restaurants"Odessa", drinking Vodka and dancing to Russian music. What is going on?

One thing that struck me when I first visited Russia in 2007 was how warm the people are.

The propaganda fed to us from Americans told us all Russians are cold and heartless, and that influenced my opinions formed in childhood. This is so far from the truth it is embarrassing. I was welcomed by so many people into their homes with open arms, offering me whatever they had, as little as it may be.

A country so rich in history, arts, literature and culture. With strong, proud, patriotic people, it is no wonder they have never lost a war.

I have a few photos on my website of Russia, but after last weekend's good times at "Odessa" it is only fitting that I share some for the first time with you.....ENJOY :)

Russia

Russia